Firewatch First Impressions: Gorgeous, but not for everyone

If you’re trying to decide whether to pick up new indie title Firewatch, check out our spoiler-free first impressions of the game.

Despite good reviews, Campo Santo’s Firewatch seems to be a game people either love or hate — and that’s understandable, because it’s not your average video game. The game features no combat and really only has one character that you interact with regularly. Instead of thinking of it as a game, you might be better off imagining it as a choose your own adventure novel… just with great visuals and better music.

And I mean really great visuals.

Here’s the premise: you’re Henry, and you’ve headed out into the wilds of Wyoming to watch for forest fires. You’re surrounded by pristine wilderness in every direction, and other than the occasional camper you’re on your own. Your only contact with the outside world is your supervisor Delilah, who can reach you over radio — other than that, you’re completely cut off. It’s peaceful in these woods, and you can play through most of the game enjoying that peace — admiring the way the light plays through the trees, taking snapshots with your disposable camera, and even making friends with a turtle you come across.

The interface is first person. You move Henry around, look in different directions, pick things up, read notes, climb rocks, rappel down steep slopes, and the like. Again, there’s no combat, so all you’re really doing is making Henry interact with the world around him. The result is a streamlined interface where you only have a few buttons to press, which leaves you with the mental space to pay attention to the story and the scenery.

Interactions with Delilah are similarly simple. When she contacts you by radio, press a button to respond: you’ll have three dialog options and a timer in which to select one. If you don’t respond in time or don’t respond at all, Delilah will probably have something to say about it, but you’re never forced into conversations you don’t want to have. You’ll also encounter things in the world that you can contact Delilah about to learn more or just strike up conversation… or you can choose to avoid her entirely, and keep to yourself in the wilderness.

Of course, because this is a video game, the calm is eventually broken. For a game where you are not once confronted physically by another character, the game’s short five hour run can be surprisingly tense. And with the game’s overall peaceful atmosphere, that tension is entirely carried by the voice acting — and the dangers of the woods that you come up with on your own.

Like the monster movie that leaves the monster hidden in the shadows to leave room for your imagination to fill in the blanks, Camp Santo lets you imagine what’s menacing you — and you’ll probably come up with something worse than they could have shown on screen.

In the end, I enjoyed it. The reason Henry came out to the woods and what he learns from his summer in the wilderness makes for a strong narrative — and though it could have been moralistic and pushy, it isn’t.

But the game isn’t perfect, either. My biggest complaint is how easy it is to miss the point entirely. If you decide you don’t like or don’t trust Delilah and therefore don’t talk to her, you wind up missing a lot of story elements that make the whole thing hold together. Even if you do talk to Delilah, some dialog options will make the story arc clear while others will leave things murky. If you want to get the most out of your playthrough, talk to Delilah whenever the opportunity comes up.

If you want to give Firewatch a try for yourself, set your expectations at “visual short story” instead of “action-packed video game” and head over to Steam (Linux/Mac/Windows) or the PlayStation Store (PS4) to pick it up for yourself. Firewatch will set you back $20 regardless of platform.